(To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.) Blessed is he that understandeth the poor Jehovah will deliver him in the day of evil.
The first book of Psalms closes with a blessing that hides a question. Who is "the poor" that the happy man considers? The answer shapes the whole psalm — the deliverance promised, the sickness, the betrayal by a close friend.
The verb is not casual. It means paying attention to someone others overlook. It means recognising him and owning him. The psalm makes that recognition the door into blessing.
This Psalm is the result of recognising Christ in His low estate. So in the day of evil — that time of trouble which is coming — the Lord will deliver such a man. He will "keep him alive," so that "he shall be blessed upon the earth." … "Blessed is the man who walks," etc. — "Blessed is the man whose sin is forgiven, is covered" — "Blessed is the man who recognises," or "owns," "considers," "pays attention to," Christ, that poor Man, in His utter, utter humiliation!
The Hebrew behind "poor" is not simply about having no money. Its root picture is something swinging and unsteady. That opens the psalm's puzzle: why is this man so weak?
This word "poor," although a possible rendering of the Hebrew, is not the only one possible, nor (I believe) its meaning in this case. The meaning of the original is "swinging, waving to and fro," so also "wavering, weak, exhausted." It can therefore stand for "poor." But this weakness may, of course, come from something very different — from injury or from sickness. And here the puzzle of the psalm begins.
Take the verse as a reward for giving to charity, and the rest of the psalm no longer fits — the slander, the sickbed, the betrayal by a friend. Take it as a blessing on those who understand Christ in His poverty, and the psalm holds together.
The first part gives us the blessedness of knowing that Poor Man, whose poverty makes many rich. Only with such an application can we see the true significance of this blessedness. To treat it as the reward for simple kindness, as many think, would not only miss the gospel. It would make the body of the psalm impossible to understand. The subject of the psalm, as even the first verse shows, implies a mystery. There is something that needs an understanding heart, and that something concerns in some way the "poor man." Faith penetrates the mystery and finds unspeakable blessing. Unbelief reads it in quite another way, and gets the opposite reward.
Commentators do not read the psalm as speaking of Christ alone. The blessing rests on the man who understands the place of the godly sufferers in Israel. Christ took that place so fully that to consider them is to recognise Him.
This is the blessedness of the man who considers (or "understands") the position of the godly remnant in Israel — those here called "the poor." As we know from the Gospels, Christ fully entered this position and tasted their sorrows. So there are expressions in the psalm which are used by Christ, though the psalm as a whole cannot be applied only to Him. Still, Christ entered the position and sorrows of the poor of the flock so perfectly that the blessedness is not only in considering the poor remnant. It is above all in recognising Christ as the poor Man, who identified Himself with the godly.
The "day of trouble" is not one kind of trouble. The rest of the psalm names several, and the promise covers them all.
Are they called to endure persecution (2)? Or sickness at the hand of God (3, 4)? Or the tongue of slander (5)? Or betrayal by a close friend (9)? Whatever the trial, Jehovah will deliver the one who considers the poor (1) out of all of it. … He will uphold him in his integrity, and set him before His face for ever.
Because the Lord took the place of poverty Himself, the way a person treats the poor is never merely social. It is a verdict on Him.
James addresses the rich. They have possessions in this world, and they do not consider the poor — while "blessed is the one who considers the poor." Anyone who despises the poor because of his poverty despises the Lord Himself. "As for me," says the Lord in the psalm just before this one, "I am poor and needy." … Riches are a real danger to us. They feed pride, and they tend to make the heart keep its distance from the poor — and the Lord associated Himself with the poor in this world.
The same writer turned it into plain counsel:
Be much among the poor. The Lord always owns it, it was always His way, and it has its own peculiar importance in more ways than people suppose.
- See — "Considers" means to recognise, own, pay attention to. The blessing starts with seeing the One others passed by in His humiliation.
- Poor — The word pictures weakness, wavering, exhaustion, not just empty pockets. The psalm's puzzle is what caused that weakness.
- Christ — Treat the verse as a reward for kindness and the rest of the psalm becomes unreadable. It is the happiness of knowing the Poor Man whose poverty makes many rich.
- His people — Commentators differ on how far the psalm speaks of Christ Himself. They agree He entered the sorrows of the poor so deeply that to consider them is to recognise Him.
- Kept — Persecution, sickness, slander, betrayal. Whatever the day of trouble holds, the Lord delivers the man who considers the poor, upholds his integrity, and sets him before His face for ever.
Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive; he shall be made happy in the land; and thou wilt not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
Verse 1 blesses the person who gives thought to the poor. This verse says what God gives back: protection, preserved life, blessing in the land, and rescue from enemies — but who is "the poor" here, and where is that blessing given?
One writer reads "the poor" here as one person, and names Him:
"Blessed is the one who considers the poor" — that is, the poor Man. And who is the poor Man? Christ! So considering the poor Man does not mean giving money to the needy; it means considering Him. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." It is a blessed thing to be emptied of self like this. The world would call you poor-spirited; that is exactly it, but the Lord counts such people "blessed."
Faith is what recognises Him, and the promise of deliverance follows:
The clear sight of faith sees the glory of Christ under the veil of His sufferings. That is why "in the day of trouble the LORD delivers him." Whatever kind of evil comes, grace shows itself enough for it. Enemies may be many in a hostile world, but they cannot defeat him: "the LORD protects him and keeps him alive… you do not give him up to the will of his enemies."
The promise works as a mirror:
Psalm 41 — The poor man's place; verses 1-3: whoever treats the weak according to the mind and way of Jehovah, Jehovah will treat him the same way.
The psalm lists the troubles this promise covers, and the ground it stands on:
Are they called to endure persecution (v. 2)? Or sickness from the hand of God (vv. 3, 4)? Or the tongue of slander (v. 5)? Or betrayal by a close friend (v. 9)? Whatever the trial, Jehovah will deliver the one who considers the poor (v. 1) out of all of it. Here we stand on the ground of keeping the law. So Jehovah will uphold that man in his integrity and set him before His face for ever.
The words "in the land" place the promise on earth. That sets the hope in the Psalms apart from the Christian's hope:
The believers in the Psalms belong to the earth in their character, their hopes and their blessings… The blessing held out for the one who understands the poor is this: "the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land" (Ps. 41:2). Often the blessing has to do with the fruitfulness of the land… The Christian is different. He expects difficulties and sufferings on the earth, but he knows that God has blessed him with "every spiritual blessing" — not "in the land" or "on the earth" but "in the heavenlies" (Eph. 1:3).
That difference does not cancel the verse for readers today. It moves where the preserving happens, even for believers who pass through the last great time of trouble:
"The Lord will preserve him in time of trouble." Even in the Great Tribulation, God will preserve those who turn to the Lord, keeping them alive and blessing them on earth (v. 2). If that is true for saints in the tribulation, how much more for believers today, whose inheritance is not on earth but in heaven. In that case, God may not keep them alive on earth, but He will keep them alive in heaven. Whatever the case may be, the Lord will not deliver any believer to the will of his enemies.
The last clause is God's refusal: He will not hand this man over to what his enemies want. One writer ties this promise to Christ and to the close of the whole book:
Psalm 41 closes the book with the blessing of the man who considers the poor — not the proud but the poor of the flock — because he has God's mind. Christ understood this fully, for He had that mind perfectly, and He took up a sentence from the psalm about a man who was as far from this mind as anyone could be. The wicked do not triumph in the end. So Jehovah favours the despised, even here on earth, though people plot against them. He upholds them in their integrity and sets them before His face for ever.
- Sight. The blessing starts with seeing the poor Man — Christ in His low place — not with handing out money.
- Return. What you do toward the weak, God does toward you: this is the mirror running through verses 1-3.
- Range. The deliverance is not narrow. Persecution, sickness, slander, betrayal by a friend — grace proves enough for each.
- Land. The promise here is earthly: kept alive and blessed in the land. The Christian's blessings are heavenly, so God may keep him alive in heaven instead of on earth.
- Safety. The last word is that enemies do not get their way. God upholds the despised man in his integrity and sets him before His face for ever.
Jehovah will sustain him upon the bed of languishing thou turnest all his bed in his sickness.
Psalm 41 opens with a blessing on the person who takes thought for the weak. Verse 3 shows how far that blessing reaches: right into the sickroom, where God Himself attends the bed. Does the promise mean a believer never dies of illness? And how does a psalm about a sickbed connect with Christ, who was never sick?
The verse is not a general guarantee to everyone who falls ill. It belongs to the man described in verse 1, and its logic is return in kind:
Psalm 41 — the poor man's place. Verses 1-3: whoever acts toward the weak in the mind and way of Jehovah, Jehovah will act the same way toward him.
God is not rewarding a giving habit. The man blessed here understands the place of the lowly and takes it himself:
Psalm 41 shows the blessedness of the man who understands this position of the poor of the flock and enters into it (compare Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20). It is spoken in the person of one of the suffering remnant — doubtless with the psalmist's own experience.
Verse 2 deals with hostile people. Verse 3 deals with a body that is failing. One writer sets the two side by side:
Whatever the evil is, grace will show that it is enough. The world may be hostile and the enemies many. Still they cannot prevail against him: "Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive; and You will not give him up to the will of his enemies." And if the attack comes from within, against the very forces of life, the promise still holds: "Jehovah will sustain him on the bed of languishing: You will make all his bed in his sickness."
The verse promises strength on the bed, not always removal from it. The picture assumes things have gone wrong:
The positive assurance follows in verse 3. Surely this pictures a state of things that brings afflictions such as illness. Circumstances may be far from favourable. But in those circumstances God promises the believer His sustaining grace.
The same writer notes a limit. In the psalm the sufferer is kept alive and blessed on earth. Believers now have their inheritance in heaven. So they may not be kept alive on earth — but they will be kept alive in heaven.
The second half of the verse is tender. Older translations render it as God turning or making the sick man's bed, where the ESV reads "in his illness you restore him to full health."
Written to a suffering friend, one letter takes the verse as something already tested and found true, and names what God uses to soften the bed:
How well you must know Him! How often He has strengthened you on the bed of languishing! How He has made all your bed in your sickness! How often He has enabled you to carry your weak soul in the arms of faith and lay it down on this resting place — His precious word! It is a bed of comfort stuffed with sweet and precious promises.
Sometimes God is the one who puts a person on the sick-bed. There is a purpose in it:
Often God has to put us on a sick-bed to show us in practice what He can do. It is surely a blessed thing to see how He works this way — to see how He proves that He is enough for those whom He lays low. But the blessing of a sick-bed is often just this: God takes away everything else to show us that we have really lost nothing. Before that, we did not quite believe it.
Commentators differ over how directly this psalm speaks of Christ. One reads the sufferer as Christ Himself — "the Weakened One," whose glory faith sees under His sufferings. Another marks a limit. Christ took this place, but not the sickness:
The point of the psalm is this: blessed are those who understand the position of the people Jehovah is dealing with, and who enter into it themselves. This place Christ fully took, though He was not chastened with sickness.
- Cause — the promise follows the man of verse 1: as he treated the weak, so God treats him.
- Care — God does not just visit the sick bed. He holds the sufferer up and turns the bedding Himself.
- Comfort — His word softens that bed. It is a resting place filled with promises.
- Content — the promise is sustaining grace in the illness, not always removal of it. God shows He is enough by taking everything else away.
- Christ — He fully took this place of the lowly, though He was never chastened with sickness.